External Hard Drive as .mp3 player

[Pinnacle Group]

Has anyone had success in using an external laptop style (self powered) HDD? My 2012 Tahoe will not recognize the device unfortunately (2TB WD unit).

I tried formatting to FAT32, and a few other things, but no dice. Anyone familiar with the limitations on this?

Thanks for the help!

 

[fiatdale]

Havent tried, but I have the 2012 nav. I will try tonight!

That drive might be too big to recognize?

 

[Chrisalecia]

I've tried it without success too. tried it every which way I could think of. Ended up using an old Ipod Nano I had. Now I just leave that in the truck and its always there ready to go. I don't think the vehicle head unit can read the mp3 file as the ipod does. With an ipod plugged in you get the whole file structure and can navigate through artists, songs , etc.

 

[onelovechicago]

it seems like the higher gig hard drives dont work, my 500g doesnt but my small 4g thumb drive does.

 

[YuCanada]

I don't have the USB like you guys, but I am willing to bet there is not enough power to run the drive. Large drives usually come with 2 USB plugs, or a wall plug in order to give them enough juice.

 

[yates ™]

I don't have the USB like you guys, but I am willing to bet there is not enough power to run the drive. Large drives usually come with 2 USB plugs, or a wall plug in order to give them enough juice.

There is a power port right by the USB and you can just run a USB car charger for the extra power needed so that shouldn't be the problem

 

[YuCanada]

There is a power port right by the USB and you can just run a USB car charger for the extra power needed so that shouldn't be the problem

True. But they are not mentioning whether or not they are using that, so I just suggested it.

 

[yates ™]

True. But they are not mentioning whether or not they are using that, so I just suggested it.

I just assumed they are as most 2.5" external drives have 2 USBs on one end.

 

[jdpber]

You can get 2.5" externals that are USB power. I have a 1tb that I plug into the USB on my pioneer for movies and music. Navigation is folder based. But I can put on auto shuffle and she works like a champ. But I mainly use my iPod classic bc of the better navigation and faster processor for searching

 

[yates ™]

You can get 2.5" externals that are USB power. I have a 1tb that I plug into the USB on my pioneer for movies and music. Navigation is folder based. But I can put on auto shuffle and she works like a champ. But I mainly use my iPod classic bc of the better navigation and faster processor for searching

Since when does an iPod classic have navigation?

 

[NathanJax]

Since when does an iPod classic have navigation?

the navigation of the files... Not navigation as in driving directions.

 

[yates ™]

the navigation of the files... Not navigation as in driving directions.

Do not cuss at me

 

[EMF Audio]

There are size limitations on some devices, an that limitation varies. On most modern equipment the limitation is 32 or 64 GB.

 

[karlh]

Has anyone had success in using an external laptop style (self powered) HDD?

Not sure what you mean by self powered. I think you mean that like most 2.5" drives there is only one USB cable. If that is the case then the first issue, and likely culprit, is that you USB port on the radio isn't suppling enough power to the external hard drive for it to spin up. This was common in the first home DVD players that had USB ports. While those manufactuers have remedied the issue because of consumer demand, I doubt the auto ones have done the same.

An option that may be easy to tell for sure is to try some thumb (flash) drives of various sizes. If they all work, then it's likely a power problem. However, if you see the smaller capacity thumb drives working but not the larger or largest ones then the unit's software has a upper limit on what it can manage.

Best of luck!

 

[EMF Audio]

Not sure what you mean by self powered. I think you mean that like most 2.5" drives there is only one USB cable. If that is the case then the first issue, and likely culprit, is that you USB port on the radio isn't suppling enough power to the external hard drive for it to spin up. This was common in the first home DVD players that had USB ports. While those manufactuers have remedied the issue because of consumer demand, I doubt the auto ones have done the same.

An option that may be easy to tell for sure is to try some thumb (flash) drives of various sizes. If they all work, then it's likely a power problem. However, if you see the smaller capacity thumb drives working but not the larger or largest ones then the unit's software has a upper limit on what it can manage.

Best of luck!

If it won't power up, it's power related. If it clicks or spools up and down, its power related.